The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1887-02-04
Crops, Products and People OF
Russia.

1854 y
The crops and products of Russia
are principally cereals, flax, cattle.i
sheep and wool. 1t is quite evident
the farmers know how to cultivatethe
soil, for occasionally are to be seen
evidences of such knowledge. Gener-
ally, however, the cultivation is very
bad. One horse or one OK does all the
farm work. In no single instance
have | seen two horses or two oxen
attached to a pillow. drag or farm
wagon. The blowing is artistic but
shallow-not more than four or FIVE
inches deep. Fertilizers are but sell
dom used. The land is exhausted, but
the crops are better than / should
think possible under the circum-
stances. Ira very many localities one
car see where young forests of five,
twenty and fifty years growth have
been planted over old burrows, which
will by and by produce a crop of tim
Der and then revitalize the soil. Imet
a well-informed landed proprietor
speaking my own language, whose es-
tates are about one thousand miles
east OF st. Petersburg. This gentle
man informed me that Eastern Russia
is the richest part ofthe kindom. The
River Volga is nevigable from it's mouth
to the Caspian Sea for two thousand
miles, or within few hours of Moscow
and ST. Petersburg. On that river are
six hundred steamboats,; more, l
think, than are to be found
on the Mississippi, Ohio and the
Missouri rivers. On the broad allu-
vial lands of the Volga and other riv-
ers, the soil is deep and inexhaustible.
There" said my informant, 1--WE use
the American planter, reaper, AM
steam threshing machine l saw
none OF these labor savingimplements
in Russia. Not one. / did see some
OF them in Sweden, and some again in
Poland. The Russian pillow is small,
with a straight beam and a straight
inclined upright piece intersected with
a peg for a handle. tits drawn by one
horse or an OK or a COW, and of course
can only turn a narrow, light furrow.
The harrows are small, and generally
made with wooden teeth. The wagons
are proportionately small and
clumsy, and sometimes without iron
tires. Domestic animals seem to be
well cared for, the log stables for cat
tie being larger than the houses for
men.
Almost the entire farming popula-
ton of Russia live in houses made Of
small logs and with straw matched
roofs. Generally the logs are sawed
square on three sides, the back being
peeled from the fourth. or outer side.
They are well inferred at the ends and
snugly fitted together. These houses
are quite comfortable in appearance
and impervious to cold. The entire
cost of the material required for
a sample house cannot, think, bemore
than 500. Yet is these huts reside
over &c, 900 of Russian people.
AT first one would say the outlook is
discouraging. the hope of the inmates
small. And so they are. But reflect
for q moment and observe how pos
sibilities may change results. At st.
Petersburg may be seen q little loo
hut exactly similar to those / have
described, in which lived Peter the
Great, the. founder of Russia's present
civilization. The residence of William
Henry Harrison at North Bend, Ind,
when he was elected President of the
those. General Jackson, Henry Clay,
Webster, Lincoln and Garfield were
born In similar humble abodes. And
Russia has this day many unknown
dwellers in log cabins, who, when des-
potism gives place to merit, will step
to the front and conduct the affairs0 OF
that nation as similar men have con-
Quoted the affairs Of the Western re-